Fremantle,  WA, Australia

Yawnnnnn, we’re both getting a bit weary! It’s been a very busy couple of months and now that we’re back in civilisation Lyn and I are feeling it’s catching up with us a bit. Suck it up, let’s battle on manfully, life’s too short to rest, we’ll be home soon enough.

Today has been another great day but we’ve clearly not left enough time to look around the Perth area, there’s so much to do. We knew this when we planned the trip and we’ll just have to come back some other time.

Today we toured down to Fremantle for the day with the intention of doing a short tour of the Gaol. Fremantle Gaol was built in the 1850s by convicts, to house convicts. In the late 1880’s it became a Gaol for locally sentenced prisoners and remained Western Australia’s primary prison until it closed in 1991. Right up until it’s closure the Fremantle Gaol’s cells still had no running water and prisoners continued to use a Tin Bucket for their ablutions and were locked in their cells for more than eight hours at a time. Given the temperatures in the cells can reach upwards of 50 degrees, with two prisoners in each cell, the conditions must have been deplorable.

The Gaol has had a sobering history, with many a murder and a number of executions, as recently as 1963. When asked by the guide in the execution room whether anyone had any questions, we were a very quiet group. It’s quite disturbing!

The rest of Freo’ is a magic spot. It’s very cosmopolitan with a ‘Cappucino Strip’, a thousand places to eat and there’s a bohemian flavour to it as well with art galleries and funky little art deco places. Mixed in amongst all of this or course is some sensational architecture. The limestone buildings are just great and the city is riddled with them, from Marine Terrace right back up amongst the residential areas.

Of course, it’s also the place where you have to be “an individual”, so close your eyes and picture this. A pea-green shirt, buttoned all the way to the top, grey cargo shorts with the shirt tucked in of course, non-descript socks (I’m not sure I noticed), but sweet little brown suede boots with paisley patterns on them and to top it all off, a silver bow tie with sequins. That’s what the well dressed Freo bloke is wearing as he struts down the strip…

Although we’d spent a long time learning about shipwrecks back in Geraldton, Fremantle museum has the stern section of the Batavia on display and it’s not every day you get to see part of a ship that sunk in the 1600s. It certainly gives you some perspective, they were huge and the display filled a two-story section of the museum. We also made time to visit the Round House, a building originally built as a Gaol and the oldest building in WA (1829) but at the turn of the century used to accommodate the signal flags, time ball and cannon used to fire the 1:00pm blast that allowed mariners to adjust their chronometers.

Lyn and I caught up with Ann and Bill again for tea, they came down to Freo and we went to a quaint little Italian place before taking a walk along the boardwalk on the shore. It’s a hive of activity down along the shore at night with all the eating places packed and the Little Creatures Brewery bulging at the seams.

We most certainly need to come back and spend a couple of weeks around the Perth/Fremantle area.